Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. – 2 Timothy 1:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 1, 2015): 2 Timothy 1

It’s the moment when we begin to evaluate how well we have done as parents. Our child, who we have protected and guided through life up until this point, finally gets to make decisions on their own. It is the moment when the baby bird is being kicked out of the nest, and all that mom can do is hope that the baby figures out this flying thing before it hits the ground. And the major problem is that we know they are not ready. Experts tell us that our brains do not reach maturity until we are at least halfway through our twenties – and for some of us that moment is even later in life. But long before they have reached that point of maturity, they are already making their own decisions. They all make their mistakes, but they make us proud too. But, those first few steps send a flutter through every parent’s heart.

Paul seems to know that the end is coming. His career is edging toward a close. There is no way that he will die a natural death, and Paul knows it. So he looks at this church that will soon have to function without his encouragement and wonders whether it will survive the traumatic times that are most likely ahead. One of the people that he hopes will carry on after he is gone is a pastor named Timothy. Timothy was probably just over a decade younger than Paul, but spiritually Timothy is Paul’s son and disciple, and Paul is his mentor. And Paul’s hope is that Timothy is ready to take the reins.

So Paul tells Timothy to guard the good deposit that was entrusted to him. The good deposit was the gospel message that Paul had entrusted to Timothy, and Paul tells him to guard it with the active help of the Holy Spirit. This was a pivotal point in church history. If Timothy, and the group of younger pastors with him were unable to make the good decisions, and guard the good deposit, then the faith would die. But at this point the baton was being passed, and Paul could only hope that this group of younger pastors were ready for what laid ahead, hoping that they were going to be able to make the right decisions.

Timothy would make the right decisions. He would rise to the position of Bishop of Ephesus, and he would end up being martyred, he was stoned to death by a mob, in 97 C.E. And that was the moment that Timothy would know just how it was that Paul felt in this moment, as he would have to pass the baton off to the generation that followed him, and trust them to guard the good deposit that Timothy had deposited with them. And that moment has continued down through the ages, as every generation passes the good deposit off to the next generation.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 2